132 EEV. GEO. PATTERSON ON THE BEOTIIIKS 



cipitate retreat, they were iu the habit of destroyiug the whole, and that in consequence 

 whole families had perished from famine Need we wonder that there was excited in 

 them the spirit of relentless retaliation ; that, driven from their fishing-grounds on the 

 shores, their kinsmen shot down like wild beasts, and urged by hunger to visit the 

 neighborhood of the whites, they not only stole but stealthily let fly their arrows at their 

 inhuman foes. Still it must be noted that there is no such record of cruelties practised 

 by them on the white settlers, as is found iu almost all the cases of the settlement of 

 white men among the Indians iu America. Nor can we be surprised that when at length 

 honest attempts were made for the restoration of friendship, they had acquired an utter 

 distrust and abhorrence of the signs of civilization, and were animated by a spirit of 

 inexorable revenge against all white men. 



IV. 



Attempts to Open Intekcoxjrse. 



We come now to notice the well meant eflbrts on the part of the authorities and 

 humane individuals to open intercourse with them and to promote their welfare. The 

 British Government, upon representations made of the state of things described, was led 

 to take the matter up. Doubtless under its instructions, proclamations were issued by 

 successive governors for the protection of the natives. The first of these, issued by Capt. 

 Palliser in the year 1*760, is the first official document in which the natives are recognized, 

 and seems to have been the model of subsequent ones. It sets forth that His Ma,jesty has 

 been informed that his subjects in Newfoundland " do treat the savages with the greatest 

 inhumanity, and frequently destroy them without the least provocation or remorse. In 

 order therefore to put a stop to such inhuman barbarity, and that the perpetrators of such 

 atrocious crimes might be brought to due punishment, His Majesty enjoined and required 

 all his subjects to live in amity and brotherly kindness with the native savages," and 

 farther enjoined all magistrates to " apprehend persons guilty of murdering the native 

 Indians and send them to England for trial." 



In the same year in which the first proclamation was issued, one Capt. Scott and 

 some others went from St. John's to Bay of Exploits, with the view of opening communi- 

 cation with them, whether by appointment of government or as a private adventure we 

 are not informed. At all events, on arrival they built a residence much in the manner of 

 a fort. Some days after a party of Indians appeared and halted near the place. Scott 

 proceeded unarmed to them, contrary to the advice of his people, shook hands with them 

 and mixed among them. An old man, who pretended friendship, put his arms round 

 S30tt's neck, when another treacherously stabbed him in the back. The warwhoop imme- 

 diately sounded, a shower of arrows fell upon the English, which killed five of them, and 

 the rest fled to their vessel, carrying off one of those who had been killed, with several 

 arrows sticking in his body. 



The next attempt to open intercourse with them was by Mr. John Cartwright. He 

 was the first European, so far as known, who succeeded in reaching the Ked Indian 

 Lake. From his work we learn that the journey was undertaken " with a design to 

 explore the unknown interior parts of Newfoundland, to examine into the practicability 



